Glimpse of India – Land of Gods

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Glimpse of India – Land of Gods

India is a land of multiple religions and diverse cultures. Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian, Buddhism, Jainism; I’m not doing justice by missing some religions here. About 80% of citizens follow Hinduism and most of them bow their heads before a God or Goddess. In our homes, we don’t have one or two but multiple idols installed. In cities, you can spot numerous temples (Hindu places of worship), Gurudwaras (Sikh temples), Churches, Mosques. Only in temples, you will find multiple idols and religious pictures, many depicting some ancient religious story.

How many Gods Hindus worship?

People around the world are curious to know the number of Gods Hindus worship. A misconception that there are 33 crore Gods and demigods in the Hindu religion has taken social media by storm. Misconception, because I couldn’t find authenticity in this number and searched for the real answer.

The religious books of Hindus, Atharva Veda, Yajur Veda and Satapatha-Brahmana mention that there are ‘Trayastrimsati Koti’ Hindu Gods and Goddesses. ‘Trayastrimsati’ in Sanskrit means thirty-three. Whereas ‘Koti’ has two meanings- one is ‘Crore’ and the other is ‘Supreme’. Wrong translation of the word ‘Koti’ led to this confusion. People around the world are astounded by the fact(?) that there are 33 crore Hindu Gods.

Yes have been listening to this 33 crores from my childhood, from granny and always use to wonder can I ever list them down or they are just random numbers. India is incredible in every way and religion is on top.

I dont know the excat numbers of Gods and GODDESSES. Every village in INDIA has its own Gods. There are diiferent avatars / reincarnations of each GODS. So it is diificult to count and prepare a list. Maybe 33 koti refers to many or innumerable.

Let us take your own definition of Koti as supreme. How do you still explain the traymtrimshat Koti as 33 supreme? I don’t understand the correct answer. Can you elaborate please?
As far as my understanding goes, Veda never speaks about “gods”. It speaks about devas who are like limbs of ONE God. The 33crore comes from the logic of 3+3+3+3+…… Where Koti means infinite (Ananta Vachi as is called in Sanskrit). So the aspect of creation in its three states (birth, sustenance and death) applied multitudenous times for whole cosmos makes it that number. To the west,y answer is ” we discovered as my functions of one God as possible to comprehend by human consciousness and thus we worship each function personified”.

I know! Some one had commented the same in one of my recent articles. A language develops based on the spirit of intuition of a civilization. Sanskrit or Pali developed when civilizations were drenching in wisdom of self-awareness and universal-awareness and hence the complexity as well as the ease of development. English is relatively new and is developed for mere communication of superficial ideas. Hence it is efficient to reach most people, yet inefficient for those who want to express an idea close to realization.

ANyways, I wanted to see if I understood your statement wrong or you meant something else. Thanks for the clarification. !